Hi Gabor,
--- On Thu, 9/3/09, Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck at gmail.com> wrote:
I've tried both these approaches. See Ryacas source code to see an example of the binary download approach. It has the advantage that the software loads and runs faster. Nevertheless, I moved from the binary download approach to the Jython approach for my next package, rSymPy, since Jython gives a single approach that works on all platforms and installation becomes a "no brainer" since its all self contained.
Unzipping an archive with e.g. "python.exe" and "python25.dll" should also be quite easy. Python's main modules would all be included in "python25.dll". For add-on modules you could use a modified import mechanism, so that you can place these modules one level deeper in the directory structure.
In fact, in most cases its just a matter of:
install.packages("rSymPy").
like any other package.
Thus while its true that Jython is slower but if usrs can't
install it
in the first place
or its too difficult to install it no one will try it in
the first
place and then it
does not matter how fast it is since it will be unused or
less used.
One caveat is that although Jython does make installation
much easier
its still possible to have problems.? e.g. user does
not have
Java or has wrong version of Java or needs certain
permissions.? On Vista
they may need to run R elevated.?
I can imagine.
I expect that as new versions of Jython become available (in fact a more recent one became available after the last release of rSymPy) things will further improve. For more info on possible problems with each approach see the troubleshooting sections of Ryacas and rSymPy home pages: http://Ryacas.googlecode.com http://rSymPy.googlecode.com
Thanks. I will take a look at both projects. Guido